Liquid vending machine



March 27, 1934. c. P. LARSON LIQUID VENDING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 4, 1931 IIIIHI] March 27, 1934. c, LARSON 1,952,081

LIQUID VENDING MACHINE Filed June 4, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 III I March 27, 1934- c. P. LARSON LIQUID VENDING MACHINE Filed June 4, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 H Mum in Filed June 4, 1931; 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 BLEEDfiK.

3mm 6PM -March 27, 1934.

C. P. LARSON LIQUID VENDING MACHINE Filed June 4, 1931 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICE 1,952,031 LIQUID VENDING MACHINE Christian I. Larson, Duluth, Minn. Application June 4, 1931, Serial No. 542,064

6 Claims.

My invention relates to vending machines and relates more particularly to a manually controlled, coin released, compressed air operated, fluid metering, semi-automatic, fluid vending machine. Y

' The principal object of the invention is to provide a device or this character which embodies novel features of design, construction, and operation, whereby fluids canbe sold, metered, and dispensed to a purchaser without the necessity of the presence of 'an operator or attendant; all functions being under the control of the said purchaser.

I attain these features by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this application, and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts:

In the drawings Figure l is a side elevation of the vending machine;

Figure 2 is a combined section and elevation, showing one door of the device open;

Figure 3 is a similar view to Figure 2, except that it is from the opposite side of the machine;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the pedestal portion of the device and which forms a portion of the mechanism container;

Figure 5 is an enlarged vertical section of the automatic air operated liquid control valve;

Figure 6 is a similar view of the automatic metering and liquid vending discharge pipe;

Figure 7 is a combination elevation and sectional view of the hose hanger and valve mechanism;

Figure 8 is a plan view of the pitman head in the metering and vending tube;

Figure 9 is a transverse sectional view on the line 99, Figure 1, looking downwardly;

Figure 10 is a vertical section partly in elevation of the air controlled overflow valve;

Figure 11 is a phantom view in perspective of the coin operated and controlling mechanism.

Figure 1 shows the completely assembled fluid vending machine as it will appear when ready for the service hose, and starting into operation. This embodiment consists of a round metal column 1 with two opposed doors 2 and 3, the door 2 having provision for the detachable panel 4 which appears therethrough when the door is closed. This panel is mounted to the instrument case by means of suitable bolts indicated at 5 and carries the control handles 6 and 7 which extend outwardly therefrom, in convenient position for manual operation. The doors 2 and 3, as well as the instrument case, are preferably carried upon the pedestal comprising the circular base portion 8 and spaced upright members 9 which are here shown as integrally cast, the latter being provided with opposed lugs 10 forming part of the hinges for the door. One of these spaced upright members carries the slotted coin receiving escutcheon 11 beneath which is the coin discharging cup 12 and the window 13 which will be described later. Directly above the cylindrical portion just described is mounted the capital 14 supporting thereabove the cylindrical glass reservoir 15 which may be illuminated by two side lights 16 and is surmounted by a dome shaped metal top 1'7 supporting a large glass sphere 18.

Within said globe and dome is mounted a suitable electric circuit indicated at 19 for the lighting system, common to such devices.

20 represents the overflow pipe within the reservoir; 21, the vertically reciprocal metering pipe; 22, the filler pipe telescopically mounted within the casing 23 so that the discharge is at all times at the bottom of the reservoir. The reservoir is held in position preferably by a suitable number of bolts 24 spaced outwardly therefrom and holding firmly together the dome 17 and capital 14.

The metering pipe 21 passes through the upper portion of the capital 14, is provided with a lock nut 25 and packing washer above same to insure a non-leaking connection where it enters the delivery pipe 26. This connection is more clearly illustrated in Figure 6 of the drawings; the nut 25 being provided with the threaded gland 27 having packing rings 28 therein or other suitable means for insuring a non-leaking connection for the reciprocable pipe 21.

The delivery pipe 26 is illustrated as being made up of a plurality of sections for convenience in installation and repair, though obviously may vary in its construction from that illustrated. However, the lowermost end of the metering pipe 21 within the delivery pipe 26 is provided with the spider like cap or plug 29, a plan view of which is illustrated in Fig. 8, it having the openings 30 therethrough so as to permit of free passage of the liquid being dispensed, and carrying centrally therein the operating rod 31. The opposite end of this rod extends through the lowermost end 32 of the feed pipe 26 and there passes through the stuffing nut and gland 33 into the metering cylinder 34 wherein it is provided with the piston 35. Just above the lower terminus 32 of the feed pipe 26 is provided the connection 37 which extends laterally to and through the panel 4 externally of which the delivery hose is attached as at 38.

Beneath the piston and within the cylinder 34 the pitman 31 continues on down and through the lower terminus 39 of the metering cylinder 34. A stumng nut and gland are provided as at 40, Figures 2 and 3, below the terminus 39 of the metering cylinder and below which the rod 31 is connected as at 41 to the L- shaped lower terminus 42 of the reciprocal rack 43 which extends upwardly and is in constant mesh with the metering wheel 44, the circumferential edge of which is cogged for such engagement. Upon the shaft 45 of the metering wheel and along side of the same is the metering disc 46 having suitable graduations circumferentially thereabouts, and two circumferentially adjustable stops 47 which may be adjusted in any desired manner not here illustrated to coincide with the price changes of the fluid being vended. These stops are designed for engagement with the tiltable lever 48 controlled by the coin used in purchase of the liquid and hereinafter described. It being understood that the instant embodiment is designed for the purchase of either 50 or a dollar's worth of fluid, and under which circumstances the circumferential dimension of the metering gear 44 must exceed the extreme vertical movement of the rack 43 so that any reasonable adjustment of the dog 4'? which controls the dollar service will not bring said dog in front of the inner end of the lever 48 which would obviously prevent operation of the machine, but that in the event of a 50 purchase being made the stop 4'7 would be the first to engage the inner end of the lever 48.

Assuming the embodiment here illustrated is utilized as a gas supply pump and connected with a gas supplytank having the necessary constant air pressure applied thereto, 50 representing the gasoline supply connection, and 110 the air connection, a prospective customer approaching the pump first removes the gas supply hose 52 from the hook 53 which is pivotally mounted as at 54 externally of the pump. The inner end of the hook lever 55 has an elongated slot 56 therein in whichis mounted the pin 57 attached to the pitman 58 of the piston 59 within the drain pipe control valve cylinder 60. This valve is provided with the drain inlet connection 61 from the bottom of the reservoir 15, and the outlet drain connection 62 connecting with the overflow pipe 20 below the drain valve 101. At 63 is illustrated the counterweight in which I prefer to employ shot as it may be easily regulated, the same biasing the hook lever, as well as the valve 60, to closed position. This lever it will be noted by viewing Fig. 7 also engages the short end 64 of the lever 65 which is pivoted at 66 and carries upon its opposite end the arcuately shaped money slot gates 67, these latter being so positioned as to control the entrances through the coin receiving escutcheon 11 so that as the gas hose is removed from the hook the counterweight 63 will function to operate the lever 65, thus permitting entrance of a coin simultaneously with the shutting off of the drain.

Now the customer places the coin, in this instance either 50 or a dollar as the instant embodiment is designed only for such, in the proper sized slot 99 therefor and, assuming the coin to be a correct one, and a dollar for example, it will roll down the inclined bottom 68 of the runway, thence downwardly onto the stop 69 and into the compartment '70 of the coin catching wheel 71. The latter is controlled externally of the panel 4 by the lever '7, the same having to be moved clockwise as viewing Figure 1 and counter-clockwise when viewing Figure 3; these two views being the reverse of one another. Simultaneously with this motion of the coin catching wheel, the rack bar illustrated at 72, Figure 2, is rcciprocated and carries with it the permanentmagnet illustrated at 73, Fig. 3, which will have attracted any spurious magnetic coin dropped into the money slot, and during such action will drop said spurious coin onto the lever 74 which controls an electric alarm circuit, designed to sound both in close juxtaposition to the tank and elsewhere to notify others interested in such an attempt at deception; this alarm being continuous as long as the spurious coin remains on the lever which it will do until removed by unlocking of the machine as by the authorized representative.

However, assuming that the coin was genuine, during the turning of the wheel '71, it will be dropped to the position shown at 75 onto the tip up lever 76, pivoted as at 77, and controlling the turning of the ratchet wheel 78. Thus lodged the coin will remain holding the lever away from engagement with the ratchet wheel 78 permitting of same to be turned as by the external hand wheel 6 which is done by the customer and which operation turns the shaft 79 upon which the ratchet wheel 78 and hand wheel 6 are mounted.

The gear wheel 80, illustrated in Figs. 2 and 5, is fixed to the shaft 79 and meshes with the rack link 81 within the control valve coupling 82, there being the piston 83 at the upperv end of this link, operated thereby, and the piston 84 at the opposite or lower end of such link. The rotation of the shaft 79 is biased in opposite directions by the counterweight 85 attached to the outermost end of the lever 86 outside of the coupling 82 and which is shown in elevation in Fig. 5 of the drawings. That is to say when the shaft '79 is turned to its extreme clockwise position, the weight 85 will be as shown in dotted lines Fig. 5 with the communication between the supply pipe connection 50 and 88 open, whereas in this illustration they are in the opposite position or ready for reversal when the tank is to be filled; the pipe connection 88 leading to the branch terminal 39 of the supply cylinder 34. It is obvious that when the valve is in the reverse position from that shown in Fig. 5 air pressure in the gas tank will force gasolene through the pipe 50, the lower end of the valve 82 and through the pipe 88 to the lower end of the supply cylinder 34 forcing the piston 35 therein to its uppermost position, thus first raising the metering pipe 21 to its uppermost position. Immediately upon the piston 35, which has elevated the metering pipe, passing the connection 90 at the upper end of the supply cylinder 34, gasolene under tank pressure will flow through such connection upwardly through the pipe 91 which supplies and is directly connected to the tank-filling pipe 22, telescopically mounted within the casing 23, so that it discharges within the tank at the lower end of said casing.

When the tank becomes thus filled the automatic feature of the overflow will function in that gasolene will descend the overflow pipe 20 into the overflow valve 101 and raise the piston like float 102 therein, see Fig. 10. This float or piston has a piston rod 103 extending therefrom and connected with the crank arm 104 fixed to the shaft 105 externally of the air valve housing 106 and in which the lever 10'? is attached to the shaft 105 and impinges the piston rod 108 of the air control piston 109 in the upper end of said housing. The raising of the piston 109 will open communication between air pipe connection 110 and 89 through said valve housing 106 and as the air connection 89 leads to the upper end of the control valve coupling 82 it will instantly force the piston 83 in said coupling downwardly, reversing the action of the manual operation of the shaft 79 and closing the gas supply between the connections 50 and 88, or, to the position illustrated in Fig. 5. The valve 101, Fig. 10 is shown for convenience of illustration at right angles to its normal position.

The above operation has been accomplished by virtue of the coin (still assuming the same to be a dollar) illustrated in full lines at 112, Fig. 11, reaching the free end of the dog lever 76 and resting thereupon by virtue of the lower end of the vertically reciprocal pin 114 being in the path of said coin, and during this temporary lodging of the coin it will have released the ratchet wheel 78. Now a further step downwardly of the coin must occur before withdrawal of gas can occur, and this step of the coin is accomplished automatically in the following manner.

Attached to the piston rod 103 at one end as at 115 is the lever 116 the opposite end being fixed externally of the mechanism case 117 as at 118, Fig. 11, and adjacent this latter pivotal connection is the upwardly inclined pitman 119 attached at the upper end as at 120 to the pin 114 so that simultaneously with the opening of the air communication between the pipes 110 and 89 previously described the pin 114 is raised from retarding the downward action of the coin, which, by gravity, rolls off the end of the lever 76 downwardly onto the free end of the lever 48 where it is again retarded in its downward travel by a pin 122 similar to the pin 114 and in which latter position the coin will tip up the opposite end of lever 48 out of the path of the adjustable dogs 47 and 47' on the metering dial46; these two latter instrumentalities being fixed to the shaft previously described. Now that this shaft is free to rotate in counter-clockwise direction, carrying the gear wheel 44 meshing with the rack 43, the latter with its accompanying metering pipe attachment, (having been previously elevated simultaneously with the filling of the tank and at which time the metering wheel with its dogs rotated clockwise to their extreme limit) will immediately proceed to descend, and in so doing rotate said metering wheel and dial in such counterclockwise direction until the dog 47 has passed under the uplifted end of the lever 48, as the dollar is still resting thereupon, and eventually as the dog 47 approaches the end of the lever 48 the dog 123 on the shaft 45 will have depressed the innermost end of the lever 124 which is pivoted at 125 and lifted the pin 122 out of the path of the coin on the free end of the lever 48 by virtue of the link connection 126 between the pin 122 and the outermost end of the lever 124, so that the coin will have passed on down through its arcuately shaped course 127 toward and ultimately into the month 128 of the glass coin chamber 129 therefore; it being understood that the dog 123 is adjustable upon the shaft 45 as by a set screw, or the like, and whereby its indirect action upon the pin 122 may be governed to cause the proper timing of the dropping of the dollar coin.

The metering disc 46 is illustrated as having but two dogs 47 and 47', as the device here shown is intended to accommodate but two different types'of coins, preferably and a dollar, and while the tilting lever 48 is necessary for the service of a one dollar portion, the same is not essential for a 50 service. However, as the shaft 79 upon which the ratchet wheel 78 is mounted must be freed by the passage of either coin, and to accomplish which, the lever 78 is fixed to the shaft 77, and a lever not shown in the 50 passage and likened to 76 in the dollar passage is also fixed to the shaft 77 so that this requisite of the wheel 78 being freed by the action of either coin is accomplished. Now, as the upward movement of the rack 43 had rotated the metering wheel 44 in clockwise direction to its limit and until the tank was full, the latter will commence to serve the customer substantially immediately upon the release of the coin from the lever 76 by the indirect action of the overflow raising the pin 114 and freeing the wheel 78, allowing the rack and metering pipe to descend only until the dog 47 engages the end of the lever 48 when the metering wheel will have to stop, thus serving the patron but 50 worth of gas, when the hose is returned to its hook which opens the drain valve and closes the money slots.

During the clockwise rotation of the shaft 45 with its metering element, it will be noted that the dog 132 will have engaged the innermost end of the lever 133 pivoted as at 134 and raise the outermost end of same which has connected thereto as at 135 the lever 136 which at its opposite end is connected to the tip up bottom 137 of the glass coin chamber 129, this latter having the window 13 therein through which the last deposited good coin is visible at all times, (on account of the coin receptacle 129 being of glass as previously described), just prior to a subsequent serving of the machine so that by this action said coin chamber is emptied by the action of the succeeding coin.

From the bottom of the chamber 129 the coins fall successively into the vertical conduit 139 and ultimately into the strong box 140 encased within the base 8 of the pedestal member 9.

The inner end of thelevers 124 and 133 are provided with tip up sections to prevent said levers from being affected by reverse engagement of said dogs 123 and 132 to avoid improper functioning thereof. and it is to be understood that the dogs 47 and 47' are adjustable circumferentially about the metering disc 46 in accordance with the variation of price of liquid to be vended and which may be properly gauged by the graduated scale indicated thereupon as at 141, for which purpose I have illustrated two like concentric discs 46 held together as by through bolts 142 with the dogs 47 and 47 impinged therebetween, this specific arrangement forming no part of my present invention.

Now in the event of spurious coins or slugs being served to the machine, great care is to be exercised in the size of all of the passageways for the coins, so as to detect as quickly as possible any deviation and improper action of such coin in the machine in its refusal to function, and where a magnetically influenced metal is used, though of the proper size, it will be quickly attracted by the magnet 73 when assuming the position adjacent same as shown in dotted lines at 144. This magnet is reciprocated as figuratively illustrated in Figure 11 by the pitman 145 fixed to the crank arm 146 on the shaft 147 of the coin wheel 71 and will pull said spurious coin and drop same onto the tip up lever 74 carried upon the shaft 149 where it will lodge and instantly sound an alarmas, for example, by a segmentally shaped contact 150.. fixed to=theshaft and designed to close an electric circuit inr-which the terminals 151 and 152 are installed, the circuit being indicated at 153 and the signal at .154 and of course there may be if desired anumber of signal positions one for example at thefilling station and the other located remote therefrom.

A further precaution against tampering ,is provided for in that the coin carrying wheel 71 is provided with a slot indicated at 155 in the bottom portion of the compartment thereof which is but a fractionless than the diameter of the proper coin therefore so that any non-magnetic spurious or incorrectly sized coin at-all smaller in diameter would drop directly through same into the spurious coin passageway and. betdischarged into the cup. :1-

It is to be remembered that while the drawings illustrate the tip up lever 48 as being in direct engagement with one of the dogs 47 on the metering dial 46, obviously, this'position does not exist except just prior to the dial being operated clockwise by the raising ,of the-rack 43 so that the weight of the coin is not essential in overcoming the friction existing between the dog 47 and the end of the lever 48. a

Furthermore, it isalso-obvious that the bleeder pipes indicated in the drawings are essential in the proper intermittent draining of the mechanism before subsequent operation takes places, and that such pipes'lead to the auxiliary reservoir tank, not shown, which isnot under air pressure as is the main storage tank; u

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A fluid vending machine comprising in combination an underground'storage tank, an overhead reservoir, means including anair supply for filling said reservoir from said storage tank, an overflow pipe within said reservoir, a discharge port within said overflow pipe, a reciprocable piston valve installed within saidoverflow pipe beneath the reservoir whereby when liquid occurs within said pipe by the action of the overflow said piston will be raised simultaneously with opening the discharge port within said overflow pipe, and means connected with said piston including an automatically" controlled valve whereby the air supply which initially caused bination a, storage-tank, a reservoir; asupply pipe from the storage tank to the reservoir,. a metering pipe within the reservoir, a delivery pipe into which the metering pipe reciprocably fits, the piston rod carried by the lower end of the metering pipe, a supply pipe attached to the delivery pipe, a metering cylinder concentric with the deliverypipe and forming an extension there-. of, a piston within said cylinder actuated by said piston rod, a discharge port within said supplypipe communicating with the reservoir, and controlled by said piston whereby when the piston is at its uppermost position communication is open between the supply pipe and reservoir, coin controlled means connected with said piston whereby the height of said metering pipe is governed. 3. A coin controlled liquid vending machine comprising in combination a reservoir, coin re-. leased means for filling the reservoir,. an overflow pipe .within the reservoir having means therein whereby downward passage of liquid therethrough will close said filling means, and a coincontrolled metering pipe within the reservoir for. dispensing a predetermined quantity of liquid for the purpose described.

. 4. A coin controlled liquid vending machine comprising in combination a reservoir, asupply pipe having a valve therein for filling the reservoir, an overflow pipe extending within the reser-' voir and having a valve therein operatively connected with said supply valve and means whereby downward .passage of liquid through said overflow pipe valve will cause the supply pipe-valve to close. 5. The combinationset forth in claim i, and a metering device extending into and vertically reciprocable within the reservoir for dispensing a predetermined amount of liquid from the reservoir. 6. A coin controlled liquid vending machine comprising in combination a supply tank, a reservoir, a liquid supply pipe leading from the tank to the reservoir, a valve in said supply pipe, manually controlled means for opening said valve, an overflow pipe within the reservoir, a reciprocable valve within the overflow pipe, an air supply communicating with said first mentioned valve, and means connecting said two valves whereby downward passage of liquid through said overflow pipe will cause the air supply to close said first Mil 

